Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Few willing to change lifestyle to save the planet, climate survey finds

Exclusive: poll of 10 countries including US, UK, France and Germany finds people prioritising measures that are already habits

People generally saw themselves as much more committed to the environment than others in their local community, or any institution. Photograph: Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images

Jon Henley
@jonhenley
Sun 7 Nov 2021 

Citizens are alarmed by the climate crisis, but most believe they are already doing more to preserve the planet than anyone else, including their government, and few are willing to make significant lifestyle changes, an international survey has found.

“The widespread awareness of the importance of the climate crisis illustrated in this study has yet to be coupled with a proportionate willingness to act,” the survey of 10 countries including the US, UK, France and Germany, observed.

Emmanuel Rivière, director of international polling at Kantar Public, said the survey, carried out in late September and published to coincide with the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow, contained “a double lesson for governments”.

They have, first, “to measure up to people’s expectations,” Rivière said. “But they also have to persuade people not of the reality of the climate crisis – that’s done – but of what the solutions are, and of how we can fairly share responsibility for them.”

The survey found that 62% of people surveyed saw the climate crisis as the main environmental challenge the world was now facing, ahead of air pollution (39%), the impact of waste (38%) and new diseases (36%).


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But when asked to rate their individual action against others’ such as governments, business and the media, people generally saw themselves as much more committed to the environment than others in their local community, or any institution.

About 36% rated themselves “highly committed” to preserving the planet, while only 21% felt the same was true of the media and 19% of local government. A mere 18% felt their local community was equally committed, with national governments (17%) and big corporations (13%) seen as even less engaged.

Respondents were also lukewarm about doing more themselves, citing a wide range of reasons. Most (76%) of those surveyed across the 10 countries said they would accept stricter environmental rules and regulations, but almost half (46%) felt that there was no real need for them to change their personal habits.

Thinking about your personal efforts to preserve the planet, would you say that the following applies to you?

I would accept stricter rules and environmental regulations 76% say yes

I am proud of what I am currently doing for the planet 74

I don't think there is an agreement among experts on the best solutions to preserve the planet 72

I need more resources and equipment from public authorities 69

I can't financially afford to make those efforts 60

I lack information and guidance about what to do 55

I don't think I really need to change my habits 46

I don't think individual efforts can really have an impact 39

I believe environmental threats are over estimated 35

I don't have the headspace to think about it 33

Only 51% said they would definitely act to protect the planet, with 14% saying they would definitely not and 35% torn. People in Poland and Singapore (56%) were the most willing to act, and in Germany (44%) and the Netherlands (37%) the least.

The most common reasons given for not being willing to do more for the planet were “I feel proud of what I am currently doing” (74%), “There isn’t agreement among experts on the best solutions” (72%), and “I need more resources and equipment from public authorities” (69%).




'We're in this together': why I'm protesting at Cop26 – video

Other reasons for not wanting to do more included “I can’t afford to make those efforts” (60%), “I lack information and guidance on what to do” (55%), “I don’t think individual efforts can really have an impact” (39%), “I believe environmental threats are overestimated” (35%) and “I don’t have the headspace to think about it” (33%).

Asked which actions to preserve the planet should be prioritised, moreover, people attributed more importance to measures that were already established habits, required less individual effort, or for which they bore little direct responsibility.

About 57%, for example, said that reducing waste and increasing recycling was “very important”. Other measures seen as priorities were reversing deforestation (54%), protecting endangered animal species (52%), building energy-efficient buildings (47%), and replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy (45%).

Respondents viewed measures likely to affect their own lifestyles, however, as significantly less important: reducing people’s energy consumption was seen as a priority by only 32%, while favouring public transport over cars (25%) and radically changing our agricultural model (24%) were similarly unpopular.

Only 23% felt that reducing plane travel and charging more for products that did not respect environmental norms were important to preserve the planet, while banning fossil fuel vehicles (22%) and reducing meat consumption (18%) and international trade (17%) were seen as even lower priorities.

“Citizens are undeniably concerned by the state of the planet, but these findings raise doubts regarding their level of commitment to preserving it,” the study said. “Rather than translating into a greater willingness to change their habits, citizens’ concerns are particularly focused on their negative assessment of governments’ efforts.”

Representative samples of more than 1,000 people were questioned in the US, UK, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Singapore and New Zealand.

People gave themselves the highest score for commitment everywhere except Sweden, while only in Singapore and New Zealand were national governments seen as highly engaged. The gulf between citizens’ view of their own efforts (44%) and that of their government (16%) was highest in the UK.

This article was amended on 9 November 2021 to clarify that 51% of respondents said they would “definitely act to protect the planet”; an earlier version incorrectly said this figure referred to those who said they would “definitely take individual climate action”.


How would you rate, in terms of importance, the following measures aimed at preserving the environment and the planet?

Reducing waste and increasing recycling 57% say very important

Stopping deforestation 54

Protecting endangered animal species 52

Building energy efficient buildings 47

Banning the use of polluting substances in industry/agriculture 46

Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy 45

Increasing consumption of local products 33

Developing natural spaces with limited human activity 32

Reducing people’s energy consumption 32

Decreasing the amount of energy we use to heat or cool our homes 32

Favoring the use of public transport over cars 25

Radically changing our agricultural model 24

Reducing travel by planes 23

Increasing the price of products that do not respect environmental criteria 23

Banning fossil fuel vehicles 22

Reducing meat consumption 18

Reducing international trade 17




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N.B. Liquor employees poised to strike a week from now if deal not reached

CUPE Local 963 would become the 11th local to go on strike since a public-sector strike began Oct. 29

Mrinali Anchan · CBC News · 
Jamie Agnew, president of CUPE Local 963, representing workers at N.B. Liquor, told a news conference Tuesday that the workers had voted to go on strike, which could happen as early as next Tuesday. (Ed Hunter/CBC)

Unionized workers at N.B. Liquor will be in a legal strike position as of 12:01 a.m. next Tuesday after 97.7 per cent of them voted in favour of a strike.

In a strike vote held last week, 521 of the 566 members of CUPE Local 963 voted to go on strike, union leaders announced at a news conference in Fredericton on Tuesday.

The vote was conducted from Nov. 3 to Nov 6.

If a contract agreement isn't reached in the next week, the N.B. Liquor employees would join thousands of public-sector workers who went on strike Oct 29.

Agnew, left, with CUPE New Brunswick president Stephen Drost, said a strike would affect 41 stores operated by the Crown corporation. (Mrinali Anchan/CBC)

Forty-one publicly owned and run retail outlets and warehouses would be closed to inbound and outbound traffic, Jamie Agnew, the president of Local 963, told reporters.

It would fall to N.B. Liquor management to come up with contingency plans for navigating the closures. 

"They're not telling us their contingency plans," said Agnew, who doubted agency stores in smaller communities could fill the void.

"I don't believe the agency stores can handle the business that N.B. Liquor handles in a run of a day. …We have stores that serve over 2,000 customers a day."  

Agency stores typically exist in communities without existing alcohol outlets and serve the public in places the Crown corporation has chosen not to put one of its own stores.

Local 963, like the CUPE locals already on strike, is at odds with the province over wages. 

Casual retail and warehouse employees earn $16.78 an hour, which is the lowest end of the pay spectrum, while full-time assistant managers can earn close to $23 an hour, which is at the highest end.   

Agnew said a tentative agreement had been reached between the union and management a year ago, but it was  blocked by Premier Blaine Higgs. 

Sixty-nine days later, according to Agnew, the New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board decided a tentative agreement had not been reached.

Both sides once again went back to the bargaining table.

"The last offer offered to us was not acceptable," Agnew said. "It was eight and a half per cent over five years. Lower than the tentative agreement that we thought we already had with them."

Since then, the union has yet to receive another proposal from management.

"I haven't had a raise in three years, and my last raise was point five per cent," said Agnew.

"We are struggling, we need a fair deal and we need it now."

For the fiscal 2020-2021 year, the Crown Corporation has reported a historical high in sales records of $505.9 million and a net income of $199.4 million. 

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Strike will prolong nursing crisis, U of Manitoba nursing educators say

Group calls on health minister to speak with premier to

 resolve bargaining issues


Rachel Bergen · CBC News · 
Katie de Leon, a nursing instructor at the U of M, was one of the writers of an open letter to Health Minister Audrey Gordon, asking her to confer with the newly elected premier over collective bargaining issues between the U of M and UMFA. (Trevor Brine/CBC)

A number of educators from the University of Manitoba say they're worried an ongoing faculty strike will put even more strain on what they call a nursing crisis in the province.

The educators, who are members of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association, went on strike Nov. 2, citing government interference in the bargaining process as a cause. 

Nursing educators and supporters took those concerns straight to the source on Tuesday, with a noon-hour rally at the Manitoba legislature grounds.

Katie de Leon, a nursing instructor at the U of M, was there among the ranks of students, staff, faculty and supporters. She also wrote an open letter to Health Minister Audrey Gordon, which she sent Tuesday.

"I wanted the health minister to understand that this is an issue well beyond just education, and I wanted her to understand the impact of delaying the negotiations by not standing up and stopping the interference," she said.

The faculty association, which represents more than 1,000 U of M staff, has been fighting for higher wages for its members, arguing that low pay is causing retention and recruitment problems.

Educators in the college of nursing, who are a part of UMFA, are calling on the province to address ongoing barriers to retention and recruitment of nursing educators. They say the failure to address those problems will prolong a nursing crisis. (Trevor Brine/CBC)

That's a problem within the nursing faculty, de Leon said in the letter, which was signed by 36 other nursing educators.

"Nursing instructors and assistant professors make less the nurses that we graduate," de Leon said.

"We're here because we're not looking at our salaries only. We're here to try to recruit nursing faculty to come and educate the future nurses in this province."

Sachin Katyal, a cancer researcher at the U of M, believes the health-care system has been gutted in Manitoba, and the province is seeing the consequences of that now.

"We've already heard about how our fellow Manitobans have been shipped out of province due to critical health staffing issues, and the way we're going, this will become the norm, not the exception," he said at the rally.

"Now more than ever is the time to invest in UMFA faculty, educators and researchers. Otherwise, this shortage will become even more dire."

Darlene Jackson, the president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, says there are currently 2,200 nurse vacancies in the province. More nursing grads are needed to help fill the gap, she said.

"You have our full support, because the health of our profession is closely tied to your future," Jackson said at the rally.

University should be independent: UMFA

De Leon's letter to the health minister said some colleagues have retired early or left the university for better paid positions elsewhere.

"We've been hearing throughout the pandemic especially about the value and importance of nurses, but also about the importance of retaining the nurses we have and continuing to get new nurses here in the province," Orvie Dingwall, the president of the UMFA, said in an interview on Tuesday.

"If we want more nurses here in Manitoba, then we need more nursing faculty to educate them. We can't provide that education if we don't have those faculty members."

The nursing educators are calling on the health minister to confer with newly elected Premier Heather Stefanson and other cabinet ministers to help bring about a resolution to the collective bargaining issues between UMFA and the university.

One of the key issues is what Dingwall says is government interference.

"It's because of the wage restraint legislation that's been in place for the last five years, and right now it's also a key issue at the bargaining table," she said.

"Our members really shouldn't have to worry about ministers and government — the university should be independent from the government." 

A provincial spokesperson said the government is monitoring the situation, but respects that the university and faculty association are still in negotiations to explore resolution.

"No one wants further disruption to students and families already dealing with the pandemic, and we urge both sides to continue their efforts to find common ground," the spokesperson said in an email.

'Feel very devalued': instructor

De Leon says she took the letter to Gordon's constituency office in Southdale, planning to deliver it in person.

She says she waited for 15 minutes for someone to answer the doorbell, but nobody ever came.

When she peered through the door, she could see someone had just been sitting at the main desk, she said.

"First and foremost, I feel very devalued, because I stepped up when we had to teach our students online when the pandemic broke out. I stepped up to vaccinate Manitobans. I step up every day to continue to try and educate nurses," de Leon said.

"The least they could do is answer the doorbell."

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 THUNDER BAY

City in legal dispute over former Great West Timber site

City confirms litigation with property owner over 2015 fire cleanup, as investigation into Monday’s fire continues.
 By: Ian Kaufman
Great West Timber
The City of Thunder Bay is in a legal dispute with the owner of the former Great West Timber site over cleanup from a 2015 fire. (Ian Kaufman, TBNewswatch)

THUNDER BAY – An abandoned sawmill on Thunder Bay’s waterfront where a major fire broke out Monday is already the subject of a legal dispute over cleanup from another large fire in 2015.

City manager Norm Gale confirmed Tuesday the city is in legal proceedings with the owner of the former Great West Timber site, listed as Great West Lumber, Inc.

“There is ongoing litigation between the parties as a result of property damage due to a fire in 2015,” Gale said in a statement via email.

A massive fire consumed a sawmill building on June 17, 2015, leaving debris that included hazardous materials.

An investigation by the Ontario Fire Marshal into the blaze was brought to a standstill in 2015 until the owner complied with a Thunder Bay Fire Rescue order to clean up the property.

It’s unclear what action, if any, was taken as a result, or whether the OMF investigation was ever fully concluded.

The property was owned at the time by the Buchanan group of companies, which sought bankruptcy protection for Great West Timber in 2011.

A spokesperson for Buchanan could not be reached on Tuesday for comment.

History of Fires at Great West Timber Site
By NetNewsLedger
-November 9, 2021

Massive fire at Great West Timber Property in 2015

THUNDER BAY – NEWS – In June 2015, a massive fire on the north side of Thunder Bay lit up the night sky. The fire was located on the property where Great West Timber was located just off Water street.

Last night another massive fire brought Thunder Bay Fire Rescue and First Responders to the south part of the former Great West Timber property to fight another massive fire.

The flames were up to five stories high, and smoke filled the air.

There were no reports of injuries, but crowds of spectators have gathered nearby to take pictures and watch the blaze.

2015 Fire at Great West
Flames at fire light the sky

Smoke fills the sky from fire


Fire at Great West Timber
2021 Fire at Great West



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Nova Scotia

N.S. drafts updated old-growth forest policy, advocates say it doesn't go far enough

Public feedback being accepted until Dec. 8


Taryn Grant · CBC News · 
This stand of old-growth forest contained one tree with an estimated age of 422 years old. (Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute)

A new policy for old forests is on the table, and the province wants to know what people think about it.

Public consultation on a draft policy for the protection of old-growth forests is open now until Dec. 8.

Alain Belliveau said he'll be submitting his feedback.

"It misses the mark in terms of actually supporting its top priority of protecting old-growth forests," Belliveau said in an interview.

A botanist by training and the curator of Acadia University's E.C. Smith Herbarium, Belliveau said he started studying the biodiversity of Nova Scotia's old-growth forests 15 years ago. Through that work he's familiar with past versions of the old-growth forest policy, the first of which dates back to 1999. The last update was made in 2012.

Belliveau said there are some good additions to the latest draft, including language about the indispensability of old-growth forests. Still, he said overall he thinks the policy falls short.

"They made the house a little prettier and tidier. But the foundation is still cracked and significant progress, I think, is still lacking."

Belliveau said he thinks the policy is biased toward harvesting because it excludes any area that has received silvicultural treatment or been harvested for timber within 30 years. That could lead to the exclusion of "lightly managed forests with lots of old-growth forest values," he said.

Belliveau said he was further disappointed with a line that says the minister of natural resources and renewables can remove protection from any old-growth forest area if he declares removal "to be in the public interest."

That includes for the sake of a development project. Belliveau said that concerns him because of the recent example of the Owls Head land being quietly removed from a list of areas up for protection by a previous Liberal cabinet. The justification was a golf course development proposal. 

Belliveau said he would like to see a law, rather than a policy, on the books to protect Nova Scotia's old-growth forests so that protections would be more difficult to renege, and violations would have consequences.

Mike Lancaster, co-ordinator of the Health Forest Coalition. (Phlis McGregor/CBC)

Mike Lancaster echoed the desire to see the policy turned into legislation.

Lancaster is the co-ordinator at the Healthy Forest Coalition, one of more than a dozen stakeholders the province consulted in writing the new draft policy.

The others are:

  • The Biodiversity Council
  • Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute
  • Forest Nova Scotia
  • Northern Pulp
  • Parks Canada
  • Westfor
  • Irving
  • Medway Community Forest
  • Nova Scotia Nature Trust
  • Ecology Action Centre
  • Nature Conservancy of Canada
  • Port Hawkesbury Paper
  • Nova Scotia Federation of Woodlot Owners
  • Cape Breton Private Land Partnership
  • Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq
  • Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources
  • Mi'kmaw Forestry Initiative

"There's tweaks and adjustments [in the draft policy] that translate to some improvements … there's other areas where some of the underlying concerns I had with the previous policy are still present," Lancaster said.

"There's still a lot of room for improvement."

The draft policy includes a more detailed definition of old-growth forest. Among several other characteristics, the policy says an old-growth forest contains trees at least 100 to 140 years old, depending on the species. 

This piece of old-growth forest located in Lunenburg County has an average tree age of 271. (Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute)

Lancaster said that refinement to the definition is "a double-edged sword."

"Scientifically that's a valid thing and it's positive in the understanding of old-growth forest ecosystems," Lancaster said.

However, he said for some species he would prefer to see a lower age threshold. That's because of the damage the invasive insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid, could wreak on many of the province's oldest trees, eastern hemlocks.

"The vast majority of our old-growth forest is really under threat, so any species, any forest type that is not hemlock-dominated, we need to have a lower metric for conserving them. Otherwise we're not achieving the percentages that we're looking to protect of old-growth forest in Nova Scotia."

A positive addition, according to both Lancaster and Belliveau, is mention of how private land fits into the plan for protecting old-growth.

The province only has the authority to apply the policy on Crown land, but it notes about 63 per cent of all forested land in Nova Scotia is privately owned.

"We can't just do this on Crown land," said Peter Bush, manager of forest research and planning in the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables. 

That's why the new policy lays out a commitment to work with private landowners and support them if in identifying and protecting old-growth stands.

Bush said one of his main goals in opening the policy to public consultation is to bring attention to the conservation potential in Nova Scotia.

No money has been set aside for the purpose, but Bush said buying private land containing old growth could be considered, given the right circumstances. 

Bush said he thinks policy that encourages participation of private landowners has a better track record of success than legislation and enforcement.

The existing policy, he said, recently proved its worth — it helped identify a stand containing the oldest recorded tree in the Maritimes, a 532-year-old eastern hemlock near Panuke Lake, located northwest of Halifax.

The province is accepting written submissions by email to ecologicalforestry@novascotia.ca

Bush said he expects the policy to be finalized sometime in the new year, depending on how much feedback is received — the more that comes in, the longer it will take to review.

The draft policy calls for review every five years.


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